Knight Rider Running on All Eight Cylinders?

Email This Page

Your Name

Your Email

To (separate emails with commas)

Message (optional)

Send

Your email was sent successfully.

Close

October 21, 2008

After receiving positive response from its two-hour backdoor pilot movie based on the iconic "Knight Rider" series from the 1980s, NBC has decided the show will finish out the '08-'09 season, giving the go-ahead for nine more episodes of "a reinvented, updated and super-charged action series showcasing the new KITT (Knight Industries Three Thousand)." The show has been in the NBC lineup since September 24.

KITT has apparently switched DNA, now a blue oval as opposed to a tricked-out Pontiac with an '80s-futuristic cyclops eye. The new series instead features a Ford Shelby GT 500 KR Mustang, an appropriate switch, perhaps, given that young Michael Traceur (played by Justin Bruning) is the estranged son of the original series' Michael Knight (David Hasselhoff).

The New KITT's "weapon's [sic] systems match that of a jet fighter," they say, leading us to ponder just exactly what KITT's "weapon" is, and how many systems said weapon commands. Presumably, KITT's schwartz is bigger than all of the lesser villain's rides; NBC proudly announce that "Kitt and Michael will continue to travel across the country on their fun, escapist ride pursuing bad guys and saving the day."

Was it an enraged, drunken phone call soured the relationship between Knight and Traceur? Frankly, we haven't had time to indulge in the new show because we've been glued to the Internet, watching our 401(k)s and blue chips melt into obscurity.

With TV Guide's Adam Bryant claiming "the series itself has yet to pick up much speed," perhaps Universal Media Studios and Dutch Oven Productions should put this one back in and turn on the broiler.--Colin Mathews